The Plant-based Foodie: 27 Recipes from Vancouver’s Top Vegan-friendly Restaurants

The Foodie Book series has gone vegan-ish; just like almost everyone else you know!

It’s clear, we’re in the midst of a plant-based food renaissance and Vancouver is a leader in innovative, exciting and damn tasty plant-based eating. We are all thinking about our diets more and how we affect the world around us. The Plant-based Foodie -Vancouver cookbook explores the stories and recipes of the restaurants and foodie businesses behind this boom.

Hot on the heels of The North Shore Foodie, The East Van Foodie, and The Gastown Foodie, Foodie Book series creator, Brad Hill, has changed things up and focused on vegan and vegetarian restaurants from across Vancouver. The book features a thorough showcase of Vancouver’s veggie venues, from the casual comfort of MeeT restaurants to the roots of Vancouver’s veggie scene at The Naam, to the polished perfection of the Acorn and Heirloom, plus everything in between.

The 27 restaurants that were selected for this volume represent the most influential, exciting, and progressive plant-based cuisine in the city. It showcases the restaurant’s stories, written by food writer Chris Dagenais, snapshots in time and engaging vignettes that focus on the ‘why’ of the businesses, not just the who, what, when, where. Then, recipes from each restaurant are presented, directly from the chefs, they range from decadent hearty comfort food to light healthy meals that provide perfectly balanced nutrition. All this is wrapped up with Brad Hill’s beautiful photography of both the recipes and restaurants and packaged in a 220-page hardcover cookbook that is equally at home on the coffee-table as it is in the kitchen.

1. Peel the ginger and garlic and remove the stalks from the lime leaves.

2. Measure all the dried spices into a pan and toast over medium heat for a few minutes until they are aromatic. Keep the spices on the move in the pan by stirring or shaking the pan so they toast evenly.

3. Place all ingredients into a blender with a splash of oil and blend into a paste. You could also use a large pestle and mortar, but you’ll need to mince the ginger, garlic and lemongrass first. Add enough oil for a thick paste to come together. Set aside.

Curry

1. Mince the garlic and peel and roughly chop the onion. Chop the pepper, potato, carrot and cauliflower into small bite-size chunks.

2. In a large saucepan, sweat the onion over a low heat for 2-3 minutes in a splash of oil. Add the garlic, stir and cook for 30 seconds then add the lemongrass, stir and cook for another 30 seconds.

3. Add the potato, increase the heat to medium and cook for 3 minutes. Add the peppers and carrots and continue cooking for 2 minutes.

4. Stir in the curry paste and cook for 1 minute before adding 1 cup of water and the coconut milk. Add the chickpeas, green peas, cauliflower, pineapple and tofu, bring to a boil then reduce the temperature to a simmer.

5. Cook until the curry has reduced a bit and the vegetables have softened. Season to taste and serve with rice or noodles.